Defining Moments
by Conversation Killer
Summary: A collection of events that have happened in the ME timeline. Some will be short, others long, and I hope all of them interesting. Enjoy
1. Phase Gate

Well, I was reading a few stories here and I decided I would like a piece of the action. My Shepard is Earthborn and Ruthless. Here we go.

Grissom shifted nervously, watching the slowly approaching relay. The Scientists had declared it safe but they didn't have to take the risk. He shook his head, _Everybody here is a volunteer._

The Pilot glanced down at his instruments, then announced, "Five minutes."

Grissom nodded, then tapped a few buttons and spoke into the intercom, "Crew, we have five minutes left. Anybody who wishes to leave, this is the last chance. That is all."

Crew that could leave their stations slowly assembled behind Grissom as the pilot called out, "Three minutes."

Grissom glanced briefly at the ships surrounding the relay, then focused on the relay, determined to remember this event for the rest of his life. There was a crackle of radio, then a voice spoke, "Good luck SSV Yorktown. May God watch over you. SSV Troy out."

The pilot spoke again, "Thirty seconds." Everyone stared at the fast approaching relay, drawn in by the blue light and silvery metal. "Five, four, three, two, one…"

Grissom braced as they drew parallel with the relay within what seemed to be spitting distance before blue light enveloped them and flashed. He started giving orders as soon as he could see out the pilot's windows again, "Navigation, find out where we are. Also, someone get on the scanner and find out if the probes are still in this system. I want to return ASAP." Grissom looked out the window for another minute, then turned around and smiled, shaking his head.


	2. Relay 314

"Mercer, let me get this straight. You think the Protheans were the little gray guys every said they got abducted by back in the 21st and 20th century?"

"Hell yeah, that bit about the Protheans dying off 50,000 years ago is complete bullshit. There is a reason why the public doesn't know what a Prothean looks like. It's obvious the Alliance is suppressing it. What do you think Captain?"

"I think you should pay attention to turning on that relay, your theory is just one of those conspiracy theories, and Ivan, don't encourage him."

Mercer shook his head, "Relax a bit, Captain." He tapped a button, "Should be about ten minutes." He focused on the screen in front of him, tapping the occasional flashing button.

Captain Valorn glanced up from the data pad he was reading and swore again, "I said I was not to be disturbed for two hours, XO."

"Sir, we have five unidentified contacts. They do not match any profiles in the data base."

Valorn growled, "You are bothering me over pirates? We have a clear policy about them."

The XO shook his, "Perhaps I wasn't clear; they do not match any ship profile in the database."

Valorn blinked as realization hit him, "A new species?"

"I can't say, sir."

Valorn stood up, and then followed the XO to the bridge. After his presence was acknowledged, he started speaking, "What do we have?"

His XO whispered something to a crew member and then turned to face him, "Five ships around a relay, #314. There are no comm buoys nearby and the intentions of the ship are unknown."

A panicked rang out then, "Sir! We are getting power spikes from the relay!"

"What? Confirm that!"

"Sir, no errors in the readings. They are turning on that relay."

Valorn stared at the holo of the ships for a second, then spoke, "Open a comm channel."

Ivan sat up, "Sir! We have contacts at 900,000 km. IFF does not identify them… We are receiving a signal from one of the ships."

Everyone on the bridge froze as the display lit up and a mysterious bird like creature appeared on the screen. Swear words echoed throughout the bridge until the Captain cut them off as he spoke to the creature, "This is Captain Kolhammer of the Alliance, 3rd Fleet. Who are you?"

The creature started to speak in some odd language and Kolhammer shook his head. "I don't think he speaks any Earth language, Sir," Ivan muttered, "He looks kinda angry." The creature glared at them for a second then roared as the screen turned to black. Ivan glanced down at his instruments, "Sir, signal lost… Sir, they have opened fire! Impact in two seconds."

"Mercer! Evasive maneuvers." Kolhammer pulled up a display of the area and watched as the other four ships got hit and destroyed. "Brace for impact!" The shots that the creatures had fired hit the ship they were in and slammed into the kinetic barriers.

Ivan glanced down again, "Barriers at 20%."

Kolhammer swore, "Get us out of here. FTL now."

Ivan nodded, "On course to Shanxi."

Valorn watched as his battle group fired the shots and smiled as four ships were destroyed right away. His smile disappeared when the last ship took the shot and went to FTL. He shook his head and glanced at his XO as secondary explosions took several of the strange ships , "Do we have the exit vector of that last ship?" The XO nodded. "Good, make two sweeps of the remaining ships for survivors and any information on this species."


	3. Shanxi

General Williams glanced up at the faces in the room. All of them looked tired and anxious. He imagined he looked the same, but he couldn't tell as there were no mirrors here, "As of 1800 local time today, we have lost 362 men to the Turians, with an additional 423 captured or wounded. There are 415 men and women able to operate."

His mind remembered the opening attack. He had lost 158 men to the orbital bombardment. Bitterness flowed through his mind as he remembered someone telling him that the Turians were using pieces of destroyed Alliance ships in orbit.

Williams refocused as someone else started to speak. 'We have food to last for the next three days. After that, the only option is to take it from the colonists. That or we starve. Neither option is viable for our situation. On the other hand, medical staff has enough supplies to look after four times our numbers."

Another person spoke up, Williams recognized him as the Captain of the ship that had returned from the relay and had been part of the holding action in orbit. "The Turians are currently at brigade strength on the ground and have a fleet parked in orbit. We do not know if the Alliance knows of our predicament. It is possible the message didn't get through.

Williams nodded as Colonel Shrader, the person he trusted most in this room, stood up and started to walk around, gesturing with her hands, "It seems we only have one course of action open to us then. Surrender." Her voice resonated as she spoke. "Resistance is futile, as the only way to resist effectively now will involve taking food from the colonists and they won't like that. That is not a good path for guerilla warfare as LT Chen said. That, along with the Turians ability to locate our forces and the fact that the Alliance may not know about us yet makes resistance a ridiculous idea now. Surrendering is the only choice left."

Williams blinked, utterly surprised. Shrader had been the one advocating resistance when the Turians hit. He sat there, thinking about the situation, ignoring everybody around him as he decided his course of action. After ten minutes he roused himself and spoke, "Squad leaders tell the soldiers what we have discussed here word for word. Tell them we'll… be surrendering at 1000 tomorrow. Everybody will be standing down."

Williams sat in silence as the majority of the people in the room left. He looked up as Shrader tapped his shoulder, "You're making the right choice."

Williams nodded, and then spoke to his staff, "Standard surrender protocols. Make sure all maps are destroyed." He stood up, "You have your orders. I'll see you at 900."

Admiral Drescher listened to the looping radio broadcast again.

"This is General Williams, military commander of all forces on Shanxi. As of 1000 on 3/15/2157, I am declaring General Emergency codes BROKEN ARROW, LAST STAND, and FALLEN GATE. An avian like creature called the Turians have captured the colony world of Shanxi. There is approximately a brigade of Turians on the ground, with a fleet of around 20 ships in orbit… This is General Williams-"

Drescher turned off the radio and looked at the system map as the 2nd fleet accelerated in system. "Do we have a visual on Shanxi yet?"

"Ten seconds ma'am." She slowly counted down the seconds. "Sensors paint eighteen alien vessels around the planet and three more further in the system."

Drescher glanced up from the map, "Open a comm channel." She waited until the crewman signaled at her. "Second fleet, this is Drescher. Use formation MJLONIR. If the bastards decide to run, do not pursue… Stay alive everybody. Admiral Drescher out."

(As I know nothing of astrophysics and combat tactics in space, I am unable to write the battle. Just know that the humans won.)


	4. The Citadel

Zhang sat down on some kind of bench in the middle of what the council had called the Presidium. He had been here for three days with the science team and this was his first moment off. He glanced over at his guards from C-sec, a Turian who always had a sniper rifle and a Salarian who always seemed constantly grumpy, then got up and walked over to the lakes.

He looked back at the Turian and inquired, "So, any fish here?"

The Turian shrugged and glanced over at the Salarian who answered, "No fish, too expensive."

Zhang nodded, then started to wander throughout the Presidium again, saw the Relay monument, visited a few shops in the Emporium, then wandered over to a statue where he saw two humans in conversation. He glanced briefly at their faces and smiled as he recognized them, "Kolhammer, Randall. How is it?"

Kolhammer glanced at Zhang's guards then replied, "Fairly good. I'd love to visit the wards, but they sound too dangerous for now."

Randall shrugged, "This station is pretty cool. It makes Arcturus look small. The artwork is really something, especially this statue. A whole species were wiped out with these guys. After that, these guys attacked the Council or something like that and lost that war."

Zhang blinked, "They wiped out an entire species?" Randall nodded. "Damn, I didn't think they were that ruthless. I guess we got lucky." He glanced up at the statue, "It looks like a dinosaur or something."

Kolhammer smiled, "Didn't think of that… So have you learned anything interesting?"

Zhang shrugged, "Just general biology and improvements on the old Prothean tech we found on Mars. General politics and history starts tomorrow."

Randall nodded, "Cool stuff man. See you at the embassy tonight?"

Zhang nodded, Randall and Kolhammer said their farewells and started to walk towards the relay monument, starting a discussion on something called the STGs. Zhang looked at the statue for a minute, absorbing the details, then started to walk on a path back to the embassy.


End file.
